The Civil Guard is the first public security force of military nature created at a national level in Spain to combat the alarming lawlessness in the roads and lands of the country due to the activities of bandits since ... [+]

The Civil Guard is the first public security force of military nature created at a national level in Spain to combat the alarming lawlessness in the roads and lands of the country due to the activities of bandits since the War of Independence. The Duke of Ahumada organizes this new Institution. He takes as a model the pattern set in France by the Gendarmerie and in Catalonia by the existing Mossos d’Escuadra. The Duke of Ahumada personally shapes this new force with strict regulations and its famous Code of Practice. This document establishes the character of the Civil Guard: strong discipline, sense of sacrifice, meritorious spirit and loyalty. The Force has the mission of protecting people and properties within and outside urban settlements and always assumes all tasks related to public order protection. As its efficiency become apparent, the Civil Guard gets more responsibilities: crime investigation police, customs, public assistance, rural protection and military police. The service is carried out by a team of two officers. Since its beginning the Civil Guard also carries out the policing of roads with the creation of the Traffic Grouping in 1959. The Civil Guard plays an important role in combating organised crime, the Nineteenth Century banditry, the maquis phenomenon in post war times, as well as in fighting ETA. In addition to this, the Civil Guard currently renders important services in peacekeeping missions. In short, the Civil Guard is one of the most appreciated Spanish heritages, an institution that intends to serve its citizens adapting itself to the modernity of this new era, at the same time that it is required to preserve the traditional virtues that have distinguished its daily work during the last 170 years. [-]